WildEarth Guardians

Thursday, August 31, 2006
Hollow Promises in Our Land of Enchantment: A Report by the Coalition for Otero Mesa Regarding Why the Bureau of Land Management

BLM has played a shell game with the public regarding its environmental analysis of the impacts from oil and gas drilling, delayed decisions, and then usually rubberstamps drilling, claiming that it cannot prevent lessees from developing their leases
Contact: Coalition for Otero Mesa

This report illustrates why the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) can’t be trusted to safeguard the fragile ecological and economic values of Otero Mesa. Drawing from the agency’s track record elsewhere in New Mexico, the report shows that the BLM has played a shell game with the public regarding its environmental analysis of the impacts from oil and gas drilling. The agency continually puts off meaningful environmental analysis until the well permitting stage, at which time it usually rubberstamps drilling, claiming that it cannot prevent lessees from developing their leases.

While the BLM argues that the impacts of drilling will leave a footprint of only 1,589 acres, this figure fails to account for the full ecological impacts created by a spider web of roads, wellpads, and pipelines across this wild mesa. Similarly, the agency’s claim that only 5% of a leased parcel will be disturbed at a time is little solace when oil companies move on to the next 5%, leaving rubble in their wake, with little to no likelihood that they will reclaim disturbed areas. The BLM’s promise that it will use satellite imagery to enforce grassland protection is vague and likely too expensive to keep.

The BLM also assures the public that it will diligently enforce mitigations to restore the natural state of the land. Lessons learned in the northwest and southeast areas of the state reveal that these promises are hollow. In Farmington, the agency allows seasonal closures aimed at protecting mule deer and elk to be ignored through back-door deals with the oil and gas industry. In Carlsbad, the BLM has broken its promise to protect lesser prairiechickens from disturbance during their breeding season hundreds of times. The endangered northern aplomado falcon, for which Otero Mesa provides key habitat, will likewise suffer if its fate is left in this agency’s hands. The BLM has already demonstrated its willingness to permit oil and gas operators to negotiate less stringent standards out of public view, which will lead to the detriment of the natural values of Otero Mesa.

If the BLM’s drilling plan survives legal challenges from Governor Bill Richardson’s administration and conservationists, the agency will likely rubberstamp new wells, without conducting adequate environmental review, as it is increasingly doing in New Mexico, our Land of Enchantment, and across the West. BLM is now approving new wells so quickly that the oil and gas industry can’t keep up. In New Mexico in 2004, 1,321 wells were approved by the BLM, yet only a little over half of that number (726 wells) were drilled. And the agency’s fast-track leasing program is proceeding with little or no compliance with federal laws aimed at ensuring public participation and safeguarding natural values.

View the report (PDF)